Christine Ateah is an associate professor in the faculty of nursing at the University of Manitoba. Her primary area of research is parenting and child health.
Many new parents, especially if breastfeeding, describe the convenience of bringing baby to bed and the good feeling of knowing baby is close by.
However, a 1999 report in the U.S. by Nakamura, Wind and Danello, in the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, helped spark the controversy over bed sharing. The study reviewed 515 infant deaths in an eight-year period that happened in adult beds and concluded that cribs were the safest place for infants.
The risks for babies sleeping in their parents' beds include asphyxiation due to the adult rolling onto the baby or the baby's head becoming wedged between the bed and an adjoining surface. The risk increases when the adult is a smoker, has taken sedatives or alcohol, is overtired or when the infant is younger than three months old. Being overtired is common among new parents, and bed sharing is most likely to start with a newborn.
Other risks include bed sharing on a sofa, a very soft mattress or a water bed or when heavy covers are used.
The Canadian Paediatric Society, in 2004, and the American Academy of Pediatrics, in 2005, recommended infants sleep on a separate sleeping surface -- such as a crib -- which meets government standards.
The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority also takes a stand. The authority does not permit parent and baby to share a bed in its facilities.
In Manitoba, Dr. Lynn Warda examined the medical, autopsy and other records of infant deaths from 2003 to 2005 and found that 10 deaths occurred during bed sharing, either on a bed or couch.
Most recently, coroners in Ontario reported 41 infant deaths in that province in 2006 and 2007 were due to bed sharing.
I conducted a study -- with Kathy Hamelin, clinical nurse specialist and lactation consultant at Health Sciences Centre -- of Manitoba mothers of three- to four-month-old babies to determine their practices and knowledge of risks of bed sharing. Our findings showed of 293 respondents, 73 per cent reported bed sharing with their infants on either a regular or occasional basis, even though most, 89 per cent, agreed there were risks.
Mothers who breastfed were twice as likely to report bed sharing. Of particular concern, of the mothers who bed shared, 13 per cent said they'd rolled onto their babies.
The study has just been published in the Journal of Obstetrical, Gynecological and Neonatal Nursing.
Supporters of bed sharing claim benefits outweigh the risks. Co-sleeping, in which parent and child share the same room but different sleep surfaces, has many of the benefits of bed sharing and none of the risks.
The Learning Curve is an occasional column written by local academics who are experts in their fields. It is open to any educator from one of Winnipeg's post-secondary institutions. Send 600-800 word submissions and a mini bio to thelearningcurve@freepress.mb.ca.
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